A Little Bush Maid

Billabong #1

by Mary Grant Bruce

Billabong, a large cattle and sheep property in the Australian countryside, is home to twelve-year-old Norah Linton, her widowed father, David, and her older brother, Jim. Norah's prim and proper aunts, who live in the city, consider she is in danger of "growing up wild" - riding all over Billabong on her beloved pony, Bobs, helping with mustering, and joining in all the holidays fun when Jim and his friends come home from boarding school. A fishing trip results in unexpected drama when they discover a mysterious stranger camped in the bush. Who is this stranger and why is he there? Norah's resourcefulness is tested to the full!

Genres: Classics, Childrens, Australia, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Gra...

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Norah Linton had lived on Billabong, the family’s cattle property in northern Victoria, all her life. She and her brother Jim along with their father worked the land, with the help of several others. Norah thought her life couldn’t be better. She and her pony Bobs were inseparable; she learned much by her father’s side during the time Jim was off at school.

Holidays brought Jim and two mates, Wally and Harry back to Billabong and the antics, adventures and fun they had caused much laughter and entertainment. Fishing was another activity they all enjoyed and the day trip on horseback to Anglers’ Bend brought surprises aplenty…and maybe a little trouble.

Originally published in 1910, A Little Bush Maid (1st in the Billabong series) by Aussie author Mary Grant Bruce is a timely Australian classic. Set in the vast bushland of country Victoria, the story of Norah and her brother is reminiscent of country children Australia wide. I know I enjoyed the same kind of days when we lived on my Grandmother’s farm when I was young, along with my siblings and our friends and cousins. There was always fun to be had – we made our own and we always slept well after the activities of the day. Yes, A Little Bush Maid is dated – but it’s well worth the read in my opinion. Highly recommended.

Free to download from Project Gutenburg - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8730

[Bree T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Little Bush Maid is the first novel of the Billabong series, which spans 15 novels published between 1910 and 1942. I was first introduced to them by a friend of mine (the same friend responsible for introducing me to the Obernewtyn Chronicles) when I was about 10 or 11 and when we moved to a new city in 1993, I discovered that the library there possessed all of the series. I read through them swiftly and re-borrowed them a lot over the next couple of years. As with a lot of things though, I eventually moved on – began reading more adult novels and left ones like these behind. When I saw it on this site, I estimated that it had probably been a good 16 years since I’d read a Billabong novel. So I immediately opened it up on the Kindle to see how I felt about it as a 29yo, having such fond childhood memories of it.

A Little Bush Maid introduces us to 12 year old Norah Linton, who lives on a cattle and sheep farm in northern Victoria with her father, the widowed David Linton and a horde of staff. During school holidays, her 15yo brother Jim joins them from boarding school in Melbourne and in this novel he brings two friends with him, Harry and Wally. I know that Wally becomes a regular fixture around Billabong, visiting every holidays and actually living there upon finishing high school, but I don’t recall how many more times Harry appears in other novels. Although Norah is 12, she’s had no formal schooling and spends most of her days riding her horse around the farm, helping her father and the stockmen. She’s an accomplished horsewoman, riding astride rather than sidesaddle, which is uncommon of the day. She has been taught how to cook and sew and run a household by the Billabong cook and sees no need to be educated in things such as Math, Latin and History. All she cares about is Billabong and her family.

Thankfully it’s school holidays so Jim arrives back, his friends in tow. Norah frets about them leaving her out but the boys take to Norah and she to them and the four of them spend their days having adventures around the huge property including meeting a hermit while on a fishing expedition and some drama about a murderer believed to be hiding out in the district. Billabong is very remote, it’s 16 miles to the nearest town and travel is done on horseback, or by horse and cart unless you’re the local doctor who is the only one mentioned to own a motor car. The book comes to a climax when Norah and her dad discover the gentle hermit gravely ill in the bush – Norah has been hiding his existence from her father in case people think he’s the murderer believed to be loose in the district and when David Linton recognises him, Norah fears the worst.

I think the most important thing when reading these novels is to remember when they were written. A Little Bush Maid was published in 1910, and life in this country has changed a huge amount in the past 100 years. Back then, huge cattle and sheep stations were the norm, with stockmen working the land and families passing down properties for generations. These days such a property would probably be an economic nightmare, given the sheer amount of staff Billabong was supporting and given current climates, which have delivered both crippling droughts and devastating floods in the past three years alone. Before automobile travel was common, parts of even Victoria, the second smallest of our states of Australia, would’ve taken days to reach from the capital and schooling would’ve been very relaxed – probably education for children in bigger towns, but for country kids it would’ve been tutors or small primary schools until the age of 12 and then boarding schools for higher education. These days Norah would have no hope being able to loaf around the family property all day but back then it was probably quite common for wealthier families to employ a tutor/governess – which David Linton does for Norah at the end of this book.

These novels have also been republished, something about which I am not surprised. I was reading an original text and I know that political correctness didn’t exist much back in 1910, especially in Australia towards the native indigenous population and the Asians that emigrated around the gold rush times, but even I was extremely taken aback by the casual usage of racial slurs about the Aboriginal stockman/helper Billy and the Chinese gardener Lee. It was very disconcerting to read a 12yo girl dropping a word I won’t even type in this review!

These novels focus very heavily on the identity of the ‘bush’ and ‘bush people’ which are clearly defined as being very different to city people. The divide is less today, but it’s still there – country folk, especially those that have grown up on the land and worked it for a long time, are very different to their city counterparts and the bush does have an identity and culture all of its own, very much based around helping each other out whenever it is needed and generosity towards anyone and a huge respect for the land which you are farming/working. Even back in the early 1900′s Mary Grant Bruce was pushing responsible farming and giving back to the land. Billabong is well celebrated for its beauty and a lot of the land seems to remain untouched, farming only what is necessary, moving animals and crops in a rotation and resting paddocks. There is great respect for the livestock that work the farms too, with Norah and Jim both reiterating how much their prize horses mean to them and indeed, how much all of the animals on the farm rate in importance, right down to Jim’s guinea pigs.

Another huge theme in these novels is the importance of family. The Linton’s are very close – Jim and Norah don’t argue that I can remember and neither of them argue with their father. Norah and Jim spend as much time together as possible, having a truly unique sibling relationship that you don’t see too often, even in fiction. And although David Linton loves both his children, it’s quite obvious (and even Jim will say) that the relationship between him and Norah is special. The family unit of Billabong extends to more than just the Lintons, with much of the staff being accepted as such and them also pretty much adopting Wally after a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed my little trip down reading memory lane, immersing myself in this world again and only wish the site had the rest of the books uploaded! They’re quite hard to source, with The Book Depository having them out of stock, Booktopia possessing only one on their site (this one, naturally!) and Fishpond seem to want to charge me between $26.95 – $42.95 for the few they can source which doesn’t exactly have me reaching for my credit card.

Thankfully my local library seems to have come partially to the rescue, having 11 titles by Mary Grant Bruce, 10 of which are Billabong novels. Unfortunately they don’t have my favourite one, Billabong’s Daughter and also some of them are apparently not for loan, or you have to inquire about them at the desk, which I find intriguing. I will ask about them the next time I am there.

But I was thankful for the chance to read this one again with such ease. They are a series that has obviously stuck in my mind over many years, even though it’s been quite a while since I visited them. I was surprised by how much I thought I remembered about the series only to find that there was so much I had forgotten. I think I read a few of the later books, when Norah and Jim are older, much more than I did the earlier novels and there’s much that I didn’t recall at all. It was almost like reading an entirely new book, but with characters that I had been introduced to before.

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves)]

This book was awarded as first prize for 'thoughtfulness' to my great grandmother Myra Lillie Moore nee Shields on the 20th of December 1910 (I wish my school had handed out book prizes for thoughtfulness, the most I ever got was a sticker on my workbook or a stamp on the back of my hand). Myra was my father's (Geoff) mother's (Joyce, born Myra) mother (Myra). She was born on the 13th June 1889 in Princeton, Victoria, a coastal village along the Great Ocean Road. So we can work out from her birth date that she would have recently turned 11 at the time when she won her award. She died on the 11th of November 1988, at the age of 89. I have no intention of reading this particular edition of A Little Bush Maid because I have a much more accessible edition from the 90s that isn't falling apart and doesn't include dreadfully racist and disturbing illustrations featuring Indigenous Australians with dumb expressions on their faces taking part in clichéd behaviour - attempting to raid a farm, accosting innocent maidens. Despite that I will keep this book because of the historical family value it holds for me and my dad's side of the family.

[Laurene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is my "childhood love". I own this series from when I was little and I refused for my mum to ever hand it down or even lend it to anyone else. It was my story - my adventure - my daydream material when I was 9-10. Stuff Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys - these guys were real. :)

[Brit McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read A Little Bush Maid in 2013, 19 years old. The title jumped out at me while I was rummaging around a great little secondhand bookstore because my grandmother had not long before been telling me about these books that she had read as a young girl herself. I hadn't heard of the Billabong series before she'd mentioned it. Imagine my surprise and delight to find a full collection of hardbacks in excellent condition, for about $7 each. I only bought one myself on the day, but when I told my mum about them she went back and purchased the whole collection for my next birthday. So lovely!

I loved it from that first reading. In my review from ten years ago I wrote, "Of course, I loved it. How could I not? It's Australia, it's the bush, it's history, it's a plucky little heroine who you can't help but love and a whole other cast of characters." And that still rings true for me today.

What hit a bit harder for me on this second reading in 2023, compared to last time, was my reaction to the blatant racism towards Aboriginal and Chinese side-characters. I feel like it chafed more than it did on first reading. The strange thing is particularly with Billy, we see that the white Australian characters clearly value him and his skill with horses, but they still don't see him as an equal. I imagine there is some class-based attitudes there as well. For all that Mary Grant Bruce calls David Linton a 'squatter' we can tell that it's not the usual sense of the word. The man is a well-off station owner. The attitudes towards Billy sat uncomfortably with me, as did the gender-based societal norms expected of Norah, even if she does have more freedoms than most other girls at the time. When we read books written over a hundred years ago, we know that we're not going to read about the same attitudes we have today, but it doesn't make it any less tricky to navigate. Like with all things, it helps to be prepared.

While this is my second time reading A Little Bush Maid, it will be my first time reading the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to my return to Billabong station. The sense of place is beautifully done and the station feels very visceral - I can see, hear and smell all that the bush has to offer.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet story of a young girl growing up on a large property in the Australian bush in the early 20th century. The main character, Norah, is good but not too good to be likeable, loved by those around her but not spoiled. What I liked best about the book was the pleasure that Norah, her brother Jim and his school friends get from their adventures in the bush, even something as simple as a walk to a waterfall.

The book is a product of its time. While this has positives, such as its use of vocabulary that might be more challenging than is found in a more modern children's book, it also means that its descriptions of Aboriginal and Chinese characters reflect contemporary perspectives that are no longer acceptable. The Afterward states that 'a few paragraphs that might be thought of as racist today have been omitted from the text', but enough remains to raise modern eyebrows.

I can see why the Billabong books have remained popular for so long, and perhaps they now have added appeal because they present a refreshing contrast to modern technology-driven lifestyles.

[Matilda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read it because I saw it in an episode of "Miss Fisher" and also because I had never read an Australian classic before. Well I wouldn't offer it to any child now.

At first I was charmed, the beginning was full of the holiday atmosphere "of yore" I enjoy. It didn't follow a particular plot, just gave episodes of little Norah's life on an Australian farmstead and I liked learning Aussie slang of the time and discover the microcosm of the homestead. However, then arrived the racism, the sexism and all the problematic things.

For my part, I can survive the sexism, it was pretty mild compared to other things I've read (let's remember this memorable quote however "Women aren't made for business"), but the racism? Jeesh it was heavy. There is an aboriginal character and apparently at the time racist Australian people talked about them in the same way they would have African-American in the US. Billy is stupid, does not know how to make full sentences, is called the N-word by a lot of characters (even by the "sweet" 12 year old Norah, well bye bye girlie), and is treated basically like a dog that needs to be kicked from time to time and whose work has to be checked by children.
Then there was the Chinese gardener, same racist spiel, but less pregnant because he doesn't have a major role. Thank god for small mercies. Also this book receives the award for "most offensive names given to horses" : Darkie and the N-word.

I would say the atmosphere was pleasantly old school, and I enjoyed the vibe of it, but everything is tied to this pregnant racism and I won't be reading the other books in the series.
I know this sexism and racism are to be taken in context, but I don't have to waste my time reading such horrendous things when instead I can tidy my collection of shoelaces of the world.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated, dull and racist.

There are other books of this era, by other authors (Seven Little Australians, Secret Garden, What Katy Did) from Australia and around the world that were well written, well crafted, and uniquely represented both Anglo and exotic (to their target audience) locales peppered with memorable and diverse characters.

This book does not really belong on any shelves besides those members of the literary canon. It’s a product of its time, true, but it’s a shoddy piece of work on top of that.

There are, in my grandmother's Girl's Own Annual texts from her own childhood, better short stories by both Australian, British, and American authors that capture the charm and nostalgia of the past frontiersmen and bushmen - and their children - with the saccharine sweet censorship of anything remotely interesting, dirty, or both likely and dangerous with the ironic addition of sexism, racism and misogyny... and I dare say Mary Grant Bruce was most likely only published because of the paucity of Australian authors from her rather privileged and useless social circle at that time in history.

[MaryG2E · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Billabong books were my favourite stories in my early teens. I just loved the adventures of Jim, Wally and Norah and all the other colourful characters which inhabited Mary Grant Bruce's idyllic Australian bush setting.

[Eleanor Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a child. The racism in the text takes my breath away. It is good to see it there because it reminds me of how far we've come in thirty to forty years. We still have a way to go!

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book by complete fluke in 1999. I remember walking through the local bookstore with my mum and bugging her to buy it for me as it had illustrations by a guy called John Lennox, and we had pictures by him at home. My bugging worked as I went home with the book and read it.

It wasn't until highschool (2001-2004) that I realised there were others in the series. I read the ones in the school library so many times I'm surprised they didn't fall apart.

When I was in year 9, my mum found a heap in the local second hand bookstore and doled them out to me one book a week to make them last.

Then in 2004, I was doing work experience in my sister's school library and got very excited when I found books in the series that I hadn't seen before. I immediately borrowed them and read them all in the space of a week and a half. I was very upset when I had to return them.

At the end of the school year, I was asked back to help tidy the library up, and as payment I received the books in the series that I didn't own. I walked them all home that afternoon, excited to find homes for them on my bookshelf.

The books may be seen as outdated now, but they still have all the wonder that they had when I was a young teen. I can pick up any book in the series and start reading it. These books bring me so much joy.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book first of all has to be read with a grain of salt. There is some offensive racist language, but it is after all how people talked when the book was written and none of it is said with malice. I would suppose that the fact that Billy can only say "Plenty" is pretty offensive but that was so strange I racked it up to Australian sense of humor.

A lot of this book is Australian slang which made it entertaining to read and made me want to incorporate those words in my own life. I'd love to call someone a real brick.

The book is a bunch of small stories woven loosely together. You could easily read one chapter a week and not forget where you were. The ending was a surprise to me, but probably it shouldn't have been. It was warm and touching and I might just read more stories about Norah the bush maid.

[BibleBoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nora is a little girl who has "Grown just as the bush wildflowers grow-hardy, unchecked, almost unattended". One day when out fishing with her brother Jim and his mates, they stumble across a hermit, who by all means wants to avoid society. But why? Then, when Jim and his mates go back to school, there is news of a murderer on the loose that's just like the hermit. Could it be the same person?

I really enjoyed it. If I were from New Zealand, I would probably say it was O for Orsom, But that is bad spelling. Entertaining, fun, and true Aussie, I did not want to put the book down. I started re-reading in immediately after I finished it.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew nothing about the Billabong series until I saw this title on Girlebooks.com last year. I downloaded & read it with fascination. It's a period piece, all right, but in spite of the outdated attitudes & language, the book rings true in some ways. An interesting if biased way to learn about the Australia of a century ago.

ETA: this book & the other three Billabong titles I've listed are available from Project Gutenberg & Manybooks. Would like to read others in the series but they don't seem to be available in any format.

[Carmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rated it 4 stars not because it was well written (it wasn't) but because of happy memories reading my mother's copy and talking about it with her. Mum treasured the whole series.
On a negative note, it is racist, sexist (even though Norah does get to do more than female protagonists in many novels of the time) classist and is full of stereotypes.

[Susea Spray · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy read that takes the reader back in time to pre WWI rural life in Australia.

Introduced to young Norah, Jim and Wally in this first of the Billabong series, the story also provides a glimpse into the beliefs, practices and social structure of the time.

A great book - and series - for discussing with youngsters, the differences between life and beliefs held then and now.

[Mary Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was probably nine or ten when I first read this book, followed by the rest of the series. I loved them then and enjoyed reading this again. I have most of the rest of the series available and am really looking forward to them.

[Melanie T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books! I am the proud owner of all the Billabong stories. They are very dated, in relation to race relationships, paternalistic etc. the books are moralising and the children are heroic in virtues. It reflects the times very well.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

i just started

[Kimbolimbo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a cute little book. Nothing spectacular. Kind of fun to read about growing up in the rural parts of Australia.

[Kathryn]

http://www.manybooks.net/titles/bruce...

[Vicki]

i just re-read this and was struck by how societies attitudes have changed especially towards indigenous people.

[Vanessa Hayward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Wanting to complete the whole series.

[Karen Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

a classic from a unique time in Australia's history

[hayls 🐴 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet, though dated, colonial Australian story. I lived vicariously through Norah as a child having always wanted my own Bobs to ride off into the bush.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started slow but I wanted to give it a good try. I loved it and it kept getting better although some parts, like the circus part, were long and boring.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this sort of as the response to a culture prompt, though it reads pretty much like most other 1900s literature. It was still a fun novel and a good story. I really liked the characters.

[christine ✩]

ohhhhh my GOODNESS i wouldve loved this to pieces when i was 10 this wouldve easily eclipsed literally every other dime novel i read at the time. a GIRL! riding wild by herself!! with boys who unabashedly adore her and don't actively look down on her! this wouldve been a DREAM to horse-obsessed little me who was utterly disgusted by the Lack of Girls in dime novels (not counting the actual girls series). but as it is i am 18 now (and i RIDE horses. what) and this was actually. pretty good i mean - i like this author. as dime novel-y as this is, it has a nice/fun tone i enjoyed and i like Norah and Jim and the friends and of course the normal dime novel things happened - adventure! mysterious person! mystery! mixups! a sudden plot twist that slots everything in PERFECTLY! redemption! reunion!!! it was not nearly as cheesy as every other american dime novel ive read soemhow even though it was like Woagh ok WHAT! well then i guess that's a thing. cool.
australian racism is Fascinating. hm. i wiiillll not say that much because i am unqualified to at all i know zilch about australian history but hoo boy. well!... awkward.
mildly intruiged by the circus scene what was ms bruce getting at i feel like im missing half of it. she's definitely more on the Leave Animals Alone side but what,

anyway i am going to go read as much of this series as i can locate online. good luck to me. also an australian told me this is Classic Australian Kid Lit cool i guess i am being educated in the ways of australia now. i have much more productive things to be doing. billabong is such a funny name

[Laura McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this one. It introduces Billabong, and it's cast of residents, from Norah and Jim, their father, Jim's school chum Wally, the housekeeper Mrs Brown, Lee Wing the gardener, Billy the stablehand, to Norah's horse Bobs, to the veritable menagerie of creatures great and small.
Norah and her brother Jim, along with his two school friends who are staying at Billabong for the holidays, go picnicking in the Bush and discover a hermit camping by the Creek. There is a robbery at the bank in a nearby town, and the description of the suspect is eerily close to Norah's new mate. Is he all that he appears?
The book feels a little episodic, as though it had originally been a serial in a magazine. Do persist with it through the first few chapters. Once you're familiar with everyone, the story opens up and I haven't looked back (a little bit like the Baby Sitters Club, some introductions are needed, but in Billabong the introductions are done once, not once per book).
These books would appeal to fans of Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women, but also to the Pony Club readers. These books are absolutely wonderful.
Warning: contains some racially insensitive language regarding Chinese Australians and Indigenous Australians that was considered acceptable in 1912, when this book was originally published. The Angus and Robertson 1992 edition has edited almost all of this language out, but earlier volumes do contain racist language.

[Jayne Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this book as a young girl and the copy that I read belonged to my Grandmother when she was a young girl. My grandmother was born in 1910 so safe to say the version I read as a kid was close to being a first edition. The book I just finished reading was published in 1996 and includes an afterward section explaining the differences between life in the 1900s compared to the late 1990s. Life has changed a lot again again in 2024!
A Little Bush Maid is a gorgeous story about the delightful Norah - although Norah would despise all that praise - for she is very caring, hard-working and down to Earth little person.
It must be remembered that this book was written in 1910. The author herself was born in 1878. When this is taken into consideration, Norah is allowed to do many things that women weren't encouraged to do in that time. She was also treated respectfully and held in high regard by the males in her life. They never held her back and allowed her to be herself. It is a little (ok a lot) strange to hear Billy called Black Billy because he is indigenous however overall he was treated well and spoken about fondly. It was interesting that again despite being 1910 Norah, and therefore the author, were thinking about animal rights and the terrible conditions that some of the circus animals were subjected to.
I've never read the other books in the Billabong series but I would like to.